Scaling Clean

This is Part II with the brilliant Tom Starrs. Tom’s interview was rich with information on cleantech government affairs and communications, so we decided to split this episode in two parts. 

2:11 - We need to scale up renewables to make it a larger portion of our electricity supply, but to do so, we need a new grid model and new technologies such as battery storage and transmission enhancements.

19:04 - There have been missteps in managing the solar supply chain issue. While we’ve aimed to reduce dependence on imported solar panels from China, the transition takes time, and we still need materials from China in the short term.

24:01 - The most important barrier to the clean energy transition is transmission. We need to aggressively pursue new transmission policy that deals with streamlining the siting and permitting of new high voltage transmission lines across the country, in combination with new transmission tech, including grid enhancing tech. This needs to be deployed in existing transmission quarters but also new ones.

Today we're interviewing somebody who has not only been a CEO, he's also advised other CEOs on marketing and public affairs, something he continues to do for his present employer, EDP Renewables. 

And Tom Starrs is our precedent-setting guest for a reason. While he's done a lot of things in a career spanning 21 years in five different companies, Tom is, by my reckoning, the longest tenured and most experienced clean tech government affairs and communications lead in America. 

And as the accelerating clean energy transition meets growing pushback from the fossil fuel lobby, the future of success of our sectors is not certain. 

Clean economy companies are often disrupting powerful incumbents with decades of experience in weaponizing government influence and propaganda against market threats for newcomers like us. 

A year after the IRA's passage, it felt like a good time to bring Tom on for his institutional knowledge and his seasoned perspective. I think you're gonna enjoy and benefit from his wisdom. 

Whether or not you work in government affairs, you need Tom's wisdom to make sure your company moves forward.

We need to scale up renewables to make it a larger portion of our electricity supply, but to do so, we need a new grid model and new technologies such as battery storage and transmission enhancements.

12:45 - Net metering had many economic benefits, but that wasn’t enough to make the technology widely adopted due to other barriers such as utilities disliking the idea. They had concerns about the safety and performance of the new tech, but it ended up being 

more reliable than they initially thought.

14:17 - Regulatory barriers, not related to the economic viability of solar, can create obstacles for customers who want to generate clean energy. It’s important to address these obstacles in advance, so that when cleantech becomes economically competitive, we can deploy it without facing these hurdles later on.

If you want a boring guest, you should skip this episode. My guest has worked in over 10 countries on three continents – in the private sector, non-profits and in government across multiple cleantech sectors. After all of that, you might expect David Arfin would be picked to star in the next round of Dos Equis commercials as “The Most Interesting Man in the World.”

Instead, he’s the CEO of NineDot Energy, a New York-based laboratory for clean energy business model innovation. Today I’m tapping David’s varied, fascinating career for management and leadership tips we can use in running our businesses.

6:39 – Follow the 1-10-100 rule. When you identify an issue early, it costs you a point. If you put off solving it, it costs you 10 points. If you really let it fester, it costs you 100 points. Help the future you and make the hard decisions early.

10:06 – Policy that determines whether your company’s product or service will be adopted depends on actions taken by local utilities and local government. All of these are moving pieces – and they're moving regularly. It is the ecosystem of policies that can enable or destroy opportunities for the adoption of clean energy. 

20:02 – As a company, NineDot Energy prioritizes behavioral interviews to eliminate, or at least weed out, biases so that they can hire and develop a new cohort of values-based learners with different environments.

23:46 – What makes him optimistic: This new generation of young people care deeply about the planet that they are inheriting. It’s a belief system they will pass onto their children and grandchildren. “The interest level and the caliber of this generation gives me great hope that climate issues are going to be addressed by people with the right motivations, the right skills, the right talent, and the right commitment.”

Over the last 17 years, Nick Cohen has held leadership positions in five companies, with four of them in clean energy. He's now the president and CEO of Doral Renewables LLC, which is developing the appropriately named Mammoth solar project at 1.3 gigawatts. It will be America's largest utility scale solar farm. I've wanted Nick on the show since I first talked with him last year.

01:47 – Hone in on your listening skills, and never assume you’re the smartest person in the room. The best leader is someone who can listen and enable the

people around them.

10:32 – Even if you hire someone with phenomenal technical skills and experience, you are setting them up for failure without a robust onboarding process, geared to understanding how they work. Nick’s company has each new hire, regardless of position, meet him in a brief, a 5-minute introductory

conversation to ensure a strong cultural fit from the start.

20:09 – Resist the urge to have a laser focus on only strategy as CEO. You need to be the biggest believer in the vision of the company. And, you need to be

plugged in to the entire company’s ecosystem.

24:57 - The CEO who builds in downtime and knows how to prioritize will always outlast the CEO who works 24/7.

27:26 – If you think of the interview process as a two-way street and emphasize cultural fit as well as technical skills, you’ll have happier employees who stay longer at the company.

Our thanks to Nick Cohen for sharing his experience with our listeners.

Jeff Wolfe is an "OC"; – an “original cleantecher.” This entrepreneur has three companies under his leadership belt, including two that he founded. Jeff’s work has spanned solar installation, EV fast charging and investment considerations for Shell New Ventures. His current company is Veloce Energy, which offers easy-to-install EV fast charging infrastructure that's designed to speed the electrification of America's vehicle fleet.

Strap in for some well-earned wisdom on building and running successful companies. 

3:31 – Just like any job, being a manager requires specific training. But most managers are

promoted without it – and it's hurting the clean economy. 

8:07 – Schedule your leisure and family time into your calendar alongside work to avoid

burnout. 

14:53 – A key takeaway from years of cleantech company management: “Half pennies matter

now. And when half pennies matter, you need to look at operational efficiencies, not just

product efficiencies.” 

16:03 – To excel as a CEO, it’s not about convincing people to do the job but convincing them

to want to do the job.

Most of our guests to date have led companies that develop renewable energy plants, sell cleantech equipment, or provide energy services. But today our guest is a pure play. She's a career-long investor who served in leadership positions at sequential investment funds, and she now serves as the co-founder and CEO of the DC-based Galway Sustainable Capital. Jennifer Von Bismarck's shop invests in companies, projects and assets that drive environmental and social resilience at the local level. I wanted to learn from Jennifer how a career in investment shaped her views on running a successful company.

7:33 - Rather than always trying to insulate your company from failure, build a team that will excel and bounce back when things go wrong (it’s inevitable!)

10:27 - Her advice for recent grads and early career professionals: to find fulfillment in your job, you should be dedicated to exploration throughout your whole career.

16:15 - There is a huge opportunity for farmers to make additional streams of income from leasing their land to solar and wind farms.

26:10 - Her go-to hiring question: “What do you get excited about?”

#Cleantechers, Scaling Clean listeners know that we seek out clean economy CEOs for their

lessons on building teams and running companies. All our guests to date have developed their

leadership abilities by ascending a career ladder, and they’ve done that across several companies.

Today’s guest has instead learned his leadership lessons on the job, so to speak. Jesse Grossman

founded Soltage 17 years ago, and he’s led since then as Chairman and CEO. Soltage is a New

Jersey-based utility-scale solar IPP company that was founded on the belief that capital cost

shouldn’t stop the spread of solar.

I met Jesse several years ago through the sponsor of this episode, Cleantech Leaders Roundtable,

and it’s great to reconnect with him today.

15:39: In the unfamiliar, high-pressure environment of an early-stage company, clear team roles

and communication are absolutely crucial. Resolve any confusion about responsibilities sooner

rather than later.

25:23 – In his many years of socializing with CEOs, he’s noticed that successful ones are:

 Serious subject matter experts

 Passionate about learning

 People with broad interests and experiences

39:43 – Your business model is like a scientific hypothesis, and it’s your job to test if it works,

not just to tell people you think it will. For young aspiring startup CEOs, the most important

thing you can do is pitch your business concept to a variety of people. Ask friends, family,

colleagues and experts in your field to poke holes in it.

41:05 – In hiring for a senior role, start planning a few quarters ahead – then assume it will take

longer than planned. Ask job candidates about their hobbies to both change up the flow of the

interview and to see how they express their passions.

In Miranda Ballentine, we have a CEO with both.com and.org experience and

some.gov experience to boot. Most know her as the head of the Clean Energy

Buyer's Alliance, but her experience runs a gamut that includes stints as a

sustainability director of Walmart Consulting through David Gardner Associates,

and as Air Force Assistant Secretary, managing energy budgets for 170 military

installations. She also was CEO of Toronto-based Constant Power that develops

distributed energy projects.

6:40 - Don’t feel pressured to automatically accept a promotion and encourage

your employees to do the same. With any job change, ask yourself: Which of the

jobs allows me to make the greatest difference for my organization? Which job

would allow me to, um, have the most positive impact in the world? Which job is

just going to be the most fun?

17:45 - In addition to developing the culture and vision of a company, a CEO

needs to be adept at resourcing and problem solving. The more senior you get,

the more complex problems you are expected to solve. Learn to prioritize

problems and outsource the smaller ones to managers when you can.

18:51 - Learn whether you are an entrepreneur or INTRApreneur. The skillsets

required to influence and persuade and move big systems (intrapreneur skills)

are absolutely critical in the climate change movement.

31:31 - The most successful hiring panels have a diverse set of interviewers (in

job title, seniority, race, gender, experience). And make sure your questions for

interviewees account for different ways of thinking.

42:12 - Building a strong culture for your company is imperative, not a nice-to-

have. You will see negative impacts if culture fit and cooperation is neglected.

Hello Cleantechers! Kevin Smith, CEO of Lightsource bp, is one of the few people in cleantech who's led two major solar companies. Kevin's a great interview in part because of the depth of his background: Fossil fuels and renewables, Europe and the US, and experience in two different types of solar. Throughout it all, he's proven to be an impressive company builder who draws consistent praise from the people that work for him.

That's why I wanted to learn more about how Kevin does it:

5:34 - A vital, underused leadership skill: Analyzing - instead of assuming - how much management a team member actually needs. This varies from person to person.

15:59 - A "blame-free" workplace is imperative to encourage risk taking, but it's not accountability-free.

20:08 - Team diversity is the right thing to do for society and for business because it creates an environment that fosters innovation.

21:44 - Servant leadership - the idea that the leader needs their staff just as much as the staff needs a leader - gives a company a competitive edge.

31:35 - When it comes to tough business decisions, making the wrong choice is better than no action at all. Some of the best lessons come from mistakes.

Hello #cleantechers! Listeners of Scaling Clean know our show is designed to bring you management and leadership wisdom from experienced company leaders in the clean technology industry. Today, we are bringing you perspective from Jing Tian, who co-founded her own company early in her career and also led the U.S. presence for three different international cleantech firms. And Jing Tian is also Dr. Tian, who earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Drexel University and served as a postdoctoral fellow in the Chemistry Department at Princeton University.

Jing is now the chief growth officer of Tigo Energy, a company accelerating the adoption of solar energy worldwide through innovative solar power conversion and storage products. She has a wealth of insights from her career of building and managing teams in the clean technology sector, some of which were international in their scope and their focus.

Timestamps:

3:55 — When faced with the challenges of managing multinational teams within global companies, it’s important to understand differences in culture and normal business practices. But building trust as a leader is just as important – and it’s universal.

6:08 — In managing trans-Pacific teams, Jing observes that in China, many young employees aren’t inclined to challenge assumptions of their superiors. To overcome that dynamic, it’s important to go the extra step to create a company culture that empowers everyone to share their opinions.

12:42 — When hiring, Jing advises that employers remember that many potentially game-changing new hires have less than 10 years of work experience. During the interview process, she focuses on learning how candidates perform under stress and multitasking demands. Are they good with people? Are they detail-oriented?

Find out more about Tigercomm’s work at the center of the cleantech industry at www.tigercomm.us.